Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[Alex van de Wetering]

David,

Nicely done and thanks for sharing your experiences here!

I guess if you have trouble with the cardboard lifting from the surface due to the moisture from the paint or air flow from the paint gun...you could try thin plastic sheet or sticker material in stead. I presume the stencil should not have any trouble cutting this.

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Hi David
The stencils I have seen that were used repeatedly were made of cut out brass sheets and very rigid.......

I have a set of those....it has individual letters in brass with a small ridge along the edges, that allows you to, sort of, link multiple letters into words. Presemably mine are post-war Dutch or German army.


The website that Jordan posted gives some nice pictures of the different applying methods used in period.....and also shows why lettering on original items is not always properly centred, straight ....and sometimes with paint smudges. Something we try to avoid as restorers!
What I do always find annoying with these stencil suppliers is that they seem to spend no energy at all at getting the font right! This website even shows a comparison of first aid boxes and it clearly shows the text is the same, but the font is wrong.

If you are using pre-made original stencils, or a stencil machine like David is using, you'll find that the width of gaps in the material is usually equal, I mean the font is specifically designed for stencilling, avoiding narrow grooves where paint can't properly run through. Some of these custom stencil suppliers however use computer fonts which are designed for book print or even web-use, designed along different guidelines, for instance to make them easier to read. As most of these suppliers will sell you stencils cut in sticker material, which seems to work very good for applying markings on vehicles by the way......why not use the proper font in stead? The cutting plotter wouldn't mind!